Fokkernews August 2019 (issue 21)

General news

Air Niugini is developing plans for substantial fleet renewal that also includes their regional Fokker fleet. Initially it looked as if these were to be replaced by modern and efficient turbo props, but now the airline also seems to be evaluating Embraer E2 jets. 

Alliance Airlines secured a two-year extension of the charter contract for flights from Perth to mines in Coondewanna and Barimunya with of F70 and F100. 

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has expressed concerns regarding the stake that Qantas has recently acquired in competitor Alliance Airlines.

Fokker F27, Fokker 50 & Fokker 60

c/n type registration new registration comment
10318 600 5Y-FMM Safari Express. Wreck noted 25 March 2019 at Garbarahey airstrip; the aircraft crashed there in June 2017.
10448 500 5Y-GMC Aerospace Consortium International. Noted Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta 7 July 2019 in flyable condition.
20109 50 SE-MFY OO-VLS Air Antwerp. The Swedish registration was cancelled 24 July 2019, OO-VLS was restored the following day and the aircraft delivered 27 July 2019 from Malmö to Antwerp in the full color scheme.
20129 50 VH-FND Aero-Pioneer Group. Again offered for sale as the transaction with Mexican Mayair fell through. The aircraft has not flown sins 2016 and is stored at Zanzibar.
20168 50F SE-LJG 5Y-SMN Silverstone Air Services. Delivery flight Malmö - Heraklion - Khartoum -Nairobi-Wilson 26 June 2019. ID confirmed now.
20180 50 SE-LJI 5Y-IZZ Silverstone Air Services. Delivery flight Malmö - Heraklion - Khartoum -Nairobi-Wilson 26 June 2019. ID confirmed now.
20181 50 JU8883 2-MIES Hunnu Air. Ferried 26-28 July 2019 Ulaan Baatar - NurSultan (formerly Astana) - Trabzon - Luxor - N'Djamena - Kinshasa on delivery to Gomair. Gomair is specialized in domestic cargo flights in DR Congo.
20183 50 JU8881 Gomair in Kishasa bought also the third Hunnu Air F50. In contrast to the other two it will be disassembled for parts at Ulaan Baatar.
20184 50 JU8882 2-OLGA Hunnu Air. Ferried 26-28 July 2019 Ulaan Baatar - NurSultan (formerly Astana) - Trabzon - Luxor - N'Djamena - Kinshasa on delivery to Gomair as their second F50.
20258 50 RP-C9273 Leascor. Surprisingly, this F50 is offered for sale; it is in service with Leascor only since late 2018.
20261 50 5Y-JAF Jubba Airways. Seen Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta on 7 July 2019, stored without starboard engine.
20284 50 VH-FKY Alliance Airlines. Reduced to spare parts and deleted from the register 31 July 2019.

Fokker F28, Fokker 70 & Fokker 100

c/n type registration new registration comment
11137 3000 5H-CCM Air Tanzania. Seen 2 April 2019 at Dar es Salaam in full Air Tanzania colors, after handover by the Tanzanian Government.
11282 100 XY-AGF Air Bagan. The airframe was donated in August 2017 by the Htoo Group (the mother company of Air Bagan) to the Chit Thu Maying entertainment park in Hpa-an, Karen state, Myanmar, and is on display there. The exact location is 16°48'39.3"N and 97°38'56.0"E.
11290 100 F-ZAFT DGA (Direction Générale de l’Armement) - Centre d'Essais en Vol; this is the French Armed Forces procurement and technology agency. Their F100 is heavily modified for in-flight radar research. It participated in the annual flyby over downtown Paris on the National Holiday 14 July 2019.
11318 100 VH-FWI Virgina Australia Regional Airlines. Experienced an engine failure on 9 July 2019 during flight VA1788 from Gerladton to Perth. Attempts to restart the engine were unsuccesful. The crew decided to continue to Perth and made a safe landing after 50 minutes.
11340 100 YR-FKA Carpatair. The aircraft was recently offered for sale.
11407 100 9A-BTD Trade Air. This aircraft is now offered for sale, available for delivery in 4Q 2019, so apparently Trade Air has reconsidered their fleet renewal plans (see Fokkernews edition 20).
11415 100 PR-OAF Avianca Brasil. Scrapping started 22 July 2019 at Brasilia. The airframe was withdrawn from service in 2015 and stored since at the same airport.
11478 100 HB-JVG Helvetic Airlines. Delivery to Alliance Airlines from Bratislava via Hurghada, Muscat, Bangalore, Kuala Lumpur, Surabaya, Darwin to Brisbane 7-11 August 2019 as SXI1946.
11532 70 VH-NUU Alliance Airlines. Rolled out of the paintshop at Norwich 8 August 2019 in special c/s devoted to Breast Cancer support. Air test at Norwich 15 August 2019 prior to delivery to Australia.
11569 70 VH-QQW Alliance Airlines. Flew from Perth to Norwich 22-24 July 2019 as SXI1910 for maintenance.

In some countries it is not unusual that the remainders of a crashed aircraft will stay at the accident site for many years. A good example is Safari Express Cargo F27 5Y-FMM (10318) that was severely damaged on 3 June 2017 when it landed at the Garbarahey airstrip in Somalia. Two years later it is still there (André Alders; Garbarahey, 25 March 2019)

 

More than eight years after its take-off accident, the wreck of Fly540 F27 5X-FFD (10530) was still in the dump corner of Nairobi-Wilson airport. The airport authority wanted to have it removed (see Fokkernews #19 of June 2019), so time will tell when and how it was disposed of (André Alders; Nairobi-Wilson, 23 March 2019)

 

Former VLM F50 OO-VLS returned home again on 27 July 2019, but for another operator and in a new livery. The Belgian start-up airline Air Antwerp acquired it on delivery from Malmö. This particular F50 was the last VLM aircraft leaving Antwerp after VLM went bankrupt. The new airline is a joint venture of Cityjet and KLM and is slated to start flying on 9 September 2019, from Antwerp to London City in codeshare with KLM. Air Antwerp now has received its AOC and has been allocated the IATA code WP, ICAO code ATW and radio callsign Devil. The arrival of OO-VLS (20109) was on a rainy day (Wout Goossens; Antwerp, 27 July 2019), while the livery is much more expressive in the sun (Gilbert de Herdt; Antwerp 29 July 2019)

 

Skyward Express, formerly known as Skyward International Airlines, is the largest Fokker operator in Kenya. Many of their F50 are painted in the basic livery of Swedish Skyways Express: white with a bright red tail and engine cowlings; also aircraft that were acquired from other sources now wear this livery. 5Y-SMX (20122) has traces on the fuselage that suggest a previous lease to an unknown operator, while 5Y-SMQ (20202) looks completely clean again, after it flew with Ocean Airlines titles and logos in 2018 (André Alders; Nairobi-Wilson, 21 March 2019)

 

That not all Skyward Express Fokkers have the red livery proves this picture of all white 5Y-JXJ (20232) (André Alders; Mogadishu, 24 March 2019)

 

Somalian airline Jubba Airways operates two F50s leased from Skyward Express, both are in the full livery of the airline, as this photograph of 5Y-JXN (20239) demonstrates (André Alders; Mogadishu, 24 March 2019)

 

After Canadian Regional retired the type in 2001 more than a dozen F28s are awaiting their fate at Saskatoon airport. C-GKCR (11101) is seen leading the group (Alexander Schouten; Saskatoon, 20 June 2019)

 

In August 2017 the chairman of the Htoo Group, the parent company of Air Bagan, donated F100 XY-AGF (11282) to the Chit Thu Maying entertainment park in Hpa-an, Karen state, Myanmar, and it is on display there since. The exact location is 16°48'39.3"N and 97°38'56.0"E. The aircraft cabin now is a café, fitted with a luxury interior (Banyar Hong Sar on Google Maps; Hpa-an, June 2019)

 

After flying several years with decals promoting touristic venues in the country, both Montenegro Airlines F100s are now devoid of special titles, as the picture of 4O-AOM (11321) shows (Hans Hoffmann, Düsseldorf, 1 June 2019)

 

The newest F70 of Alliance Airlines, VH-NUU (11532) was painted before delivery in a striking pink color scheme, supporting the Breast Cancer Network Australia (Graham Reeve; Norwich, 8 August 2019)

 

Another Alliance Airlines Fokker flew all the way from Perth to Norwich for maintenance, this time VH-QQW (11569) (Graham Reeve; Norwich, 24 July 2019)

 

The second F70 of Jetair Caribbean required interior refitting and some other maintenance after its career with TransNusa Aviation Mandiri in Indonesia. Here it is seen just before delivery to Curacao, with temporary registration 2-JACC (11585) (Hans Hoffmann; Eindhoven, 27 June 2019)

 

Credits

All photographers, Air Britain News, André Alders, Aviation Herald, Aviator.aero, CH-Aviation, FlightAware, Flightradar24, Dave Garbett, Hans Groen, Greg Hyde, Skyliner, MyAirTrade, SkyQuest, Jacques Vooren, Henbk Wadman, Willem Westerhof.